While most Starfleet officers had only received training in the use of EM weapons, by 2151, the EM-33 fell out of use aboard Starfleet vessels in favor of the phase pistol. (ENT: "Broken Bow") One of the disadvantages of the EM-33 was the need to compensate for particle drift, making the transition to the next generation, point-and-shoot phased pulse weapons difficult for some Starfleet personnel. (ENT: "Sleeping Dogs")

According to the script of "Broken Bow", the pistol was a plasma pistol and the ammunition it fired were plasma bullets, [1] as the effect was also identified on screen in ENT: "Shadows of P'Jem". In his joint "Broken Bow" audio commentary with Rick Berman, Brannon Braga stated that the weapon was a pulse gun and that he always thought that they looked better than the Starfleet phase pistols designed for the series and wished they would have stuck with the pulse guns through the series.

These props were in fact later re-used to represent the MACO phase pistols and an alien pistol weapon in the second season episode "Canamar". The MACO particle rifle appeared to be a rifle version of this pistol prop based on its appearance, as it incorporated a similar barrel and fired similar energy discharges. The MACO pistols were identified as phase pistols that fire phase pulses in ENT: "United".

While the EM-33 pistols seen in "Broken Bow" were grey with black highlights, the pistols seen on the Fortunate were black with grey highlights. The studio model of this weapon was designed by Craig Binkley and Jim Martin. [2] According to Binkley it was roughly based on the Israeli "Desert Eagle" handgun. [3]